Chapter 2: Merry & Dao

Not yet seated, Merry saw in the rear view mirror, several small airships, shining with a silvery glow, coming from the far side of the block. That was the Armadillo, the airships of her father's company, they developed this type of small airship, which got its name because of the silvery gray body and head somewhat like an armadillo. Although the Armadillo looked small, its lethality was great. Her father sent so many Armadillos at once, it seemed that he was definitely to sell Dao.

Merry couldn't care much, she quickly launched the airship and left.

"Hey!" The teenager behind her watched Merry speeding away and shouted, "You just almost hit someone..." Merry had already flown far away, he stretched his hands, and his voice of questioning was getting smaller and smaller.

The intercity area of Avalon is not like the bright lights in the central of the city, it is filled with fog all year round, and the slightest mistake can lead to an accident. This is also the reason why the teenager's airship almost crashed into Merry's airship just now.

As the teenager watched Merry's taillights disappear into the fog and was just about to start the airship, several airships with silver glows sped by, looking very expensive. What are these people doing here? The teenager thought to himself. And think of Merry who just fled in haste, his professional sense told him that the two seemed really suspicious, as to have such a large scale chase mobilized, ten to one they must have stolen something valuable.

Meanwhile, after escaping over a distance, Merry parked the airship in an abandoned residential building.

"How did they know where we were?" Dao asked.

"The tracker." Merry answered as she circled the airship to check it out.

"Isn't this the airship your father let you fly by yourself?"

"He probably saw this day coming." Sure enough, Merry found a tracker from her own airship.

"Merry... I think, you'd better go back ...." Dao, who was always quirky and talkative, now drops his head with a dejected look, "I don't want you to fall out with your dad for me..."

"Look, Dao, it's not your problem, I've wanted to escape that hellhole and my dad for a long time." Merry put a hand on Dao's shoulder, "What's more, you're my family. I will not allow anyone, to sell my family. Not even my dad."

Merry said, while searching around in the abandoned residential building. As expected, she found a disused toddler airship in a corner, which looked abandoned for a long time. This kind of airship is generally used for children, similar to to a baby walker.

Merry removed a small box of spare fuel from her airship and headed straight for the little airship. It was up to this little airship to survive the chase.

"Come and help!" Merry punched Dao, who was rambling on the side, in the head.

"Hey, my leaves are knocked off!" Dao held his head grimacing and ran over to help Merry, the two took a lot of effort to get the fuel in.

Merry twisted the little airship, which suddenly began to play children's songs. In the abandoned and empty residential area, the sound was particularly loud, and the two were startled.

The two pushed the little airship to the window, and Merry set the auto-flight mode and made it fly slowly towards the place beyond Avalon. While Merry and Dao flew the airship in the opposite direction, into the city center of Avalon again.

"Where are we going?"

"To the slum."

"Woo hoo, the slum! Are we going to live in the slum? That's awesome! I heard there's all kinds of delicious food, no cold robot butler, and no one's trying to sell me..." Once heard to go to the slum, Dao was a bit excited.

"No, let's find a place to stay for now, and when we save enough money, we'll leave Avalon and go to another city." Merry said firmly.

"That should be a lot of money to save, how are we going to make that much money?" Dao asked.

"Attic!" The two said in unison, in perfect harmony.

The Attic they were talking about is an AR game that has taken the world by storm in recent years, said to be a game, but its scenes are so realistic that it is staggering. As more and more people began to enter the Attic system, only after a few years, Loft has gradually developed into a game with ripple effects on the real world economy - the props obtained, the access to land use rights, etc. inside the game, can be traded in the real world, therefore, a lot of people gave up their original jobs and switched to the Attic World. In order to survive and earn more money, many people in the slum also had to choose to fight and scramble in the Attic World.

Seeing that Merry was not in a high mood, Dao stopped playing around and hid behind Merry.

Towards evening, the fog around the city became thicker and thicker, covering the whole border area of Avalon. Looking out from the thick fog, the flashing neon signs in the central city of Avalon looked like a spilled paint box.

Merry took Dao with her and the two landed at the slum. Although it is called the slum, it is actually the lowest area that Merry has once lived in, where the good and bad are mixed, full of illegal transactions. Of course, it also retains the most original human touch of the human world. People in the slum are not allowed to go up to the area above the 5th floor of any building in Avalon without permission. In order to escape from the slum, one must either become rich, or be talented enough to be valued by the rich upper-class people.

The two found a place to stay, which is right near the first floor of Merry's house. In the past, when her father was away, Merry often took Dao to this area to hang out. Few people in the rich area are willing to "vacation" in the slum like Merry.

Merry is quite familiar with the area, so she quickly found a place to stay. This "City of Solitude" is one of the best hotels in the neighborhood, though best as it may say, simply in relative terms. What Merry was satisfied with it is that the owner's family is quite nice and the owner's wife is a polite aunt. The streets of the slum are full of ragged people, many of whom living in makeshift shelters where scraps are piled up. Rarely, this family is often well-dressed and looks at least as well-dressed as the white collars in the rich area. The couple have a daughter, in her teens, when Merry first met her, she was wearing a small dress and sitting in front of the hotel, with her watery eyes staring with interest at the pedestrians on the street. As soon as she saw Merry walk in, she stood up and asked sweetly, "Miss, do you want to stay at the hotel? My mom said there are discounts for pretty ladies!" Merry was instantly smitten. The hotel is also neat and clean, with beige decorations, making people feel very warm and at ease.

The room where Merry and Dao chose to live is a semi-basement, now, to be saving, this kind of place is where the two can afford.

As soon as they arrived at the room, Merry couldn't wait to log in to Attic, today is the time to pay bounty for the last mission they did. In Attic, in addition to hitting the monsters and upgrading levels to get props for sale, bounties can also be earned after successfully participating in the tasks issued by others.

"You collect it, I was lazy last time and didn't output, so I guess there's not much bounty." Dao said listlessly and then found a moist and warm corner and went to sleep.

Merry was focused with her AR glasses, while Dao had already slept on the side. Neither of them noticed that a small glass window in the basement revealed a pair of eyes staring into the room.